SCHWARTZ CROSSROADS

Movable Type: Newspapers in Motion

It wasn’t too long ago that our clients were upset when their stories “didn’t make the print edition.”  Now, right before our eyes, the economics of the traditional print model are collapsing. Yesterday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition, and will move completely online, letting go most of its staff and pumping out the bytes.

Even though Craig’s List did a number on classifieds and it’s clear that newspapers are in serious fiscal trouble, I don’t mean to go all Chicken Little on you. I don’t believe that newspapers will all crumble and go the way of the telegraph. There are still some powerful entities out there. As Paul Gillin points out this week on Newspaper Deathwatch, the P-I is “choosing to focus on the future.” I have to give the P-I a lot of credit for cutting the cord and moving to a future away from static snapshot reports of the news. It’s clear that many papers will not be “news” papers. The news moves too fast to be captured. It’s now organic, localized, changing and dynamic---like a movie vs. a photograph. It’s about clusters, groups of stories, blogs, video and discussions aggregating together to provide a series of lenses. Some lenses are more accurate than others, but a broader perspective of voices gives a more complete view.

I expect newspapers will continue to be staffed by some of the best and brightest. As my Schwartz colleague Mark McClennan often points out, newspapers will also be hyper-localized. They are going to have to provide context and analysis (the why and how vs. the straight up who, what, where, etc.). Look at TIME Magazine or Businessweek, which provide a lot of analysis on any given topic. And like the Seattle-PI, a reporter will deal in far more than words---actually creating all the content and producing it from start to finish. (The P-I describes this change here). Even Businessweek is now interacting directly with its audience prior to writing stories, and all the reporters are Twittering away. The discussion happens continuously, leading up to, through and beyond the publication of the story.

I’ll be the first to admit that I like the physical paper and smudgy fingers. I am a sucker for all types of journalism movies (ranging from The Mean Season to All the President’s Men). The sources, the race to beat the printing, all of it excites me. There is also something to be said for slowing down and folding the pages, much like reading a good book that grabs you and screams:  “Don’t you dare start skimming.” But the electronic world is too loud, too prominent and too important to ignore. Well, at least a paper doesn’t lose its content connection in the middle of the BART tunnel.

Photo courtesy of the Seattle P-I.

Posted by Bryan Scanlon on March 18, 2009 at 12:02 PM